New Filament: Graft Milk Matte PLA
I just got a bunch of new filament that I'm really excited to try out: Graft Milk Matte PLA. Suffice to say it's PLA (mostly) but with some additive or treatment that makes it come out flat to hide the layer texture you get from typical prints. If you're curious you can check it out here: https://www.graftmilk.co/
However, I can't seem to get it to print past the first initial layer!
I attempted to print this dinosaur skull a few times:
I would repeatedly get through the first layer and then the printer would continue to move as if it were printing but it wouldn't be extruding anything. Here are a couple of the first layers I managed to get:
The filament seems to be notably softer than typical PLA, and the teeth on the extruder gears had managed to eat into either side, preventing it from being grabbed and pushed through. I cleaned the teeth and tried both increasing and decreasing the idler tension to no avail. This made me think maybe there was some heat creep occurring, perhaps things were just too hot. The recommended temperature for this filament is 190-220 C so I tried reducing the first layer & following print temp to 205 & 200 and then to 200 & 193 respectively. I also tried increasing the speed of the print, maybe that would keep the heat from traveling up too far and making the filament soft at the extruder. Still not seeing results past the first layer.
I then considered that maybe there was something about the model and the abundant support material that was a little too tricky for this material. So I split the dinosaur head in half and placed the two pieces flat-face down:
Still couldn't get past this initial layer:
Any thoughts on how to assess the issue? Tips on steps to take in order to determine the appropriate settings for a new material?
Thanks!
RE: New Filament: Graft Milk Matte PLA
Expensive stuff, but if it works ...
I assume your main problem is speed. In your filament profile go to "Advanced" settings (in advanced mode) and look for "Max volumetric speed". Try 5 mm³/s.
From your pictures, I would also assume that your Live Z is a bit off, but perhaps this is also related to the filament.
Reducing the idler tension and reducing/turning off retractions could also help with filament grinding.
RE: New Filament: Graft Milk Matte PLA
Thanks for the tip! However, I tried printing with regular PLA right after this and ran into a similar issue. The print just stopped but it was a number of layers up before it stopped extruding. Going to try a cold pull and some general cleaning and make sure regular PLA is working again before I jump back in to the matte material.
Will report back once I get to that point, just might be a bit with the holidays.
RE: New Filament: Graft Milk Matte PLA
Maybe the grub screw of the drive gear is loose.